The friends were still partying in the wee hours of Saturday morning, when things turned violent. A guest stabbed a man, and then another – and eventually even a police dog. Finally, police shot him dead.

Santa Clara police are now investigating what led to the department’s first officer-involved shooting since 2005.

Lt. Mike Sellers explained that the suspect “confronted the officer and was armed with the knife and the officers had no choice but to use deadly force.”

The Santa Clara Medical Examiner’s Office has not released the name of the man who was pronounced dead inside a white and blue ranch house on Crystal Drive.

Police said the party of between 10 and 15 people was actually at a tan house next door when an argument erupted. The suspect stabbed a man at that house and then exited, Sellers said, by leaping through a picture window. He ran next door, and entered the house – once again by crashing through its window.

Residents in the second house “obviously feared for their lives and were very scared but got out safely,” Sellers said. Police don’t know if drugs were involved.

A friend of the suspect came over to “calm” down the suspect, but was stabbed in the torso, said Sellers, who described the weapon as a “large folding knife.” The injuries were not life-threatening.

When police arrived at 4 a.m., the suspect was in the back bedroom of the second house. Police tried negotiating with him, Sellers said, but eventually sent in the police dog, a German Shepherd named Ares.

The suspect allegedly stabbed Ares, Sellers said, nearly severing the dog’s ear along with slicing it in the torso and near the back of the neck.

Sellers said the suspect then “confronted” officers, who shot him.

However, he could not say what prompted the officers to release the dog or how the suspect threatened officers.

The police department and Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the shooting. Two officers have been placed on administrative leave, which is normal after such a shooting.

Ares is expected to recover after a two-and-half hour surgery, said Lynn Hendrix, a veterinarian at the United Emergency Animal Clinic in Campbell.

Yellow police tape roped off a portion of Crystal Drive Saturday afternoon, a neighborhood of small ranch homes sprinkled with two-story remodels. Neighbors said residents occasionally hosted parties at the tan house, but there hadn’t been any trouble before.

“They’re not noisy, none of the neighbors call the cops on them,” said Frank Ross, who has lived on Crystal Drive 38 years. “Seemed to be nice people. They always say, ‘hi.”‘

He didn’t notice anything amiss or hear any arguments when he walked his dog Hallie at 3:30 a.m. He was surprised when he returned at 5 a.m. to find his street blocked off.

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